Trilliant Health, the healthcare industry’s leading analytics and market research firm, today released its 2026 Behavioral Health Report, finding that the U.S. behavioral health crisis has intensified in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The data in this report tell a story that is impossible to dismiss,” said Trilliant Health’s Chief Research Officer, Allison Oakes, Ph.D. “Behavioral health is not a peripheral concern, a niche service line or a problem on the horizon. It is America’s preeminent public health challenge, shaping utilization, mortality, the healthcare workforce and the financial performance of the health economy as well as the economy at large.”
The report contains 50+ data stories on the behavioral health crisis, including:
Behavioral health utilization increased by 62.6%.
Between 2018 and 2024, behavioral health utilization increased to 1,346 visits per 1,000 people. Anxiety disorders saw the highest utilization and fastest growth during this time (89.3%), with the highest utilization among women ages 18-44. Among children, demand is increasingly driven by pervasive developmental disorders (e.g., autism), speech and language disorders and anxiety (p. 28-31).
Rising mortality underscores the consequences of unmet behavioral health demand.
Drug- and alcohol-induced deaths have increased 176.1% since 1999, with mortality more than doubling across every adult male age cohort. Increases are most pronounced among men ages 65–84 (118.7%). Intentional self-harm was the tenth leading cause of death, with the mortality rate among adolescent males increasing 45.2% since 2004 (p. 22-24).
Stimulants (53.3%) and antipsychotics (45.4%) led growth in behavioral health prescribing.
The stimulant surge was driven by women, with patient volumes increasing from 2018 to 2024 by 93.6% among ages 18-44, 69.6% among ages 45-64 and 30.4% among ages 0-17. Anxiolytics, the highest volume medication class, saw the largest growth among men ages 18–44 (39.6%) (p. 38).
Telehealth accounts for two-thirds of behavioral health visits, yet workforce shortages and care gaps persist.
The national mental health professional adequacy rate stands at just 27.3% (p. 56), with projected shortfalls of 36,780 FTEs in adult psychiatry and 99,780 in mental health counseling by 2038 (p. 54). More than half of patients presenting to the emergency department for anxiety (53.1%) or alcohol and substance use disorders (51.2%) did not receive specialized follow-up care within 30 days (p. 35).
Psychotherapy prices vary up to 7x.
Untreated mental illness cost an estimated $477.5B in 2024 and is projected to exceed $1.3T annually by 2040 (p. 68). Financial barriers to care remain significant: negotiated rates for group and individual psychotherapy vary by as much as 7x (p. 73). This variation contributes to inconsistent access and unnecessary spending.
“The industry has long acknowledged that there is a behavioral health crisis, but acknowledgment is not enough,” continued Oakes. “Ultimately, every stakeholder will need to reorient around a common standard: value for money. In behavioral health, that means measuring success not by the volume of services delivered or premiums collected, but by whether the system is producing better outcomes at a cost the economy can sustain.”
Read the full report: https://www.trillianthealth.com/market-research/reports/2026-behavioral-health-report
About Trilliant Health
Trilliant Health’s analytics platform provides a comprehensive view of healthcare supply, demand and yield across local markets. Recognizing that every American is affected by the health economy, its mission is to redefine evidence-based strategy while optimizing return on invested capital.
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